Polaroid BLL Generator manual

Windows BLL Generator User Guide W indows BLL Gen erator User G u ide V1.1 0, last m odific ation Janu ary 26, 199 9[...]

2 Copyright © 1988-19 98 Lasergr aphics, Inc . All R ights Res erved. 20 Ada Irvine, C alifornia 92618 +1-949-7 53-8282 Technical Support Department: +1-949-75 3-8292 Monday through Fr ida y 7:30 A . M . to 5:30 P . M ., US Pac ific T ime Zone Lasergraphics BB S (949) 72 7-9429 Internet: http://w ww.lasergraphic s.com LFR, LFR PLUS, Person al LFR,[...]

Acknowl edgements 3 Acknowledgements The com bined ef fort of many people is required to mak e a qualit y software pr oduct. T his is a n undoubtedl y incom plete l ist of dealer s, custom ers, coworkers and friends who have b een he lpful in o ne way or an other in m aking W indows BLL G enerator into what it is toda y. Hanspeter Anderm att, Wolf [...]

Contents 5 Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................ 9 W hat You Need ............................................................................................... 10 Required Hardware ............................................................................... 10 [...]

6 Contents Running s etup .................................................................................................. 18 Adding a BLL-Generator .................................................................................. 19 Chapter 4: Printing your first image ................................................................... 21 Print[...]

Contents 7 Printer s ettings in W indows 95/9 8 ......................................................... 41 Color balance and gamm a correction ................................................... 44 Miscellan eous opt ions ........................................................................... 45 Changing th e Default Printer Settings in W ind[...]

8 Contents A ppendix A : Specifications ................................................................................. 63 Glossary 67 Index 71[...]

Introduct ion 9 Chapter 1: Introduction This is the user m anual f or the W indows BLL G enerator. T his pro duct is us ed to gener ate platf orm and applicat ion inde pendent BLL files that can b e used f or imaging on rem ote Lasergr aphics f ilm recorders . W indows BLL Gen erator suppor ts PCs running W indows 9 5, W indows 98, W indows NT 4.0 [...]

10 Introduc tion What You Need You need th e follo wing hard ware and s oftware to run W indows BLL Ge nerator : Required Har dware • Any IBM ® PC com patible m achine wit h a 486 proc essor or better, Pen tium or better recom mended. • 16 MB of m emor y when runn ing W indows 95/98 and 32 MB when runni ng W indows NT. Mor e mem ory may be req[...]

About this Guide 11 About this Guide This guid e explai ns how to set up an d use W indows BLL G enerator. This guid e assum es that you alread y know ho w to use Micr osoft W indows. If you are ne w to W indows, revie w your Microsoft W indows Us er’s Guide before proce ed ing . Screen illus tr at ions in this gui de are m eant to be representat[...]

12 Introduc tion What’s new W indows BLL Gen erator replac es W indows BLL G enerator 3.15 for W indows 95 and W inRascol 3.15 for W indows NT. Maj or parts of W indows BLL Generato r 3.15 were rewri tten to incr ease perf orm ance, sim plify its use, a nd tak e advantage of new feat ures of W indows 95 and W indows NT . W indows BLL Gen erator o[...]

Windows BLL Gener ator Features 13 Windows BLL Generator Features W indows BLL Gen erator adds a new dim ension to all of your visua l comm unications by le tting you produce prof es s ional- qu al ity pres ent at ion graphic s —righ t at your des k . Various Output Types W indows BLL Gen erator tak es images produced b y any W indows a pplicatio[...]

14 Introduc tion True Color W indows BLL Gen erator suppor ts 24-bit color, whic h enabl es you to produc e lif e- lik e pictures wit h an y of over 1 6.7 mill ion color s. 24-bit c olor ref ers to the way color inform ation is s tored in the im age. 24-bit color is s ometim es c alled “true-co lor” beca use it repr oduces th e full r ange of c[...]

Expres s Setup 1 5 Chapter 2: Express Setup This s ection exp lains how us ers with pr evious W inRasc ol experienc e can g et W indows BLL Gen erator up and ru nning quick ly. If you are ne w the W indows BLL G enerator or don’t cons ider yourself a seasoned com puter user, pleas e tak e the tim e to study the c hapters beg inning with “Cha pt[...]

16 Expr ess Setup Installing Wind ows BLL Generator W indows BLL Gen erator is f reely availab le on the Lasergraphic s web sit e www.laser graphics .com . It is also par t of the W inRasc ol 4 distribut ion disk s f or convenience. N ote that you m ay not distr ibute the W inRascol 4 distr ibution dis ks or their contents . The W indows BLL G ener[...]

Software I nstallat ion 17 Chapter 3: Software Installation This s ection exp lains how to instal l W indows B LL Generat or on your com puter. The inst allation is perform ed in two steps, the initial ins ta l lat ion and runnin g BLLC onf.[...]

18 Softw are Instal lation Running setup These s teps perf orm the initi al inst allation of the W indows BL L Generator pack age. • Close al l progra ms currently runn ing. • Insert disk 1 of the W indows BL L Generator installati on disk set, sk ip this ste p if you’v e downloa ded the W indows BLL G enerat or from the web site. • Press S[...]

Adding a BLL-gener ator 19 Adding a BLL-Generator Start BLLConf in Start- >WinRascol32 . Se lect Add/Manage BLL Gene rators . This dial og will a ppear: • Select A dd genera tor .[...]

20 Softw are Instal lation The f ollowing dialog is displa yed: • Select th e destin ation film recorder type in Film recorde r type . • Enter the s erial num ber of the t arget fi lm r ecorder in the Ser ial number edit bo x. • W indows BLL Gen erator wil l select a default nam e for y ou. You can modif y the nam e of the printer dr iver in [...]

Printing y our first Image 2 1 Chapter 4: Printing your first image This guid ed tour will sho w you ho w to print fr om an appl ication. You must hav e compl eted the so ftware insta lla tion su ccessful ly to fo llow thi s tour.[...]

22 Print ing your fir st Imag e Printing from an Application This s ection wil l show you how to pri nt an im age using M icrosof t W ordpad. W ordpad is included in both W indows 95/98 and W indows NT. But you can use an y other W indo ws applicati on instea d. Start Micros of t W ordpad. You wil l fin d it in Start->Prog rams-> Accessories-[...]

Printing y our first Image 2 3 Now open the W ordpad print d ialog b y selecting Print... from the File m enu. Select th e BLL Gener ator in the Name f ield. Note: You should never c heck the “ Print to f ile” chec k box .[...]

24 Print ing your fir st Imag e Now sele ct Proper ties . This will open a dialog that allows you to se t film recorder pr int settings : This is the W indows 95 film recor der settings dialog. T he W indows NT dial og is shown in “Pr inter settings in W indows NT” on page 48. • Select th e film type you inten d to use in Film T ype . • Sel[...]

Printing y our first Image 2 5 • Now press OK in the Print dia log. A BLL will be c reated in th e director y you des ignated a t insta llation t im e.[...]

26 Print ing your fir st Imag e Viewing a BLL You can previe w the BL L you just creat ed b y usin g W indows Explorer to locat e the file in the direc t or y you designated dur i ng ins tall ati on and dou bl e clic k ing on it. The BLL Vie wer will sho w you the rast ered f ile: Note that the printer driver has autom atically ro tated the im age [...]

Introduct ion 27 Chapter 5: Principle of Operation This s ection exp lains how th e W indows BLL G enerator a nd W inRascol work together to produce f ilm output. Introduction W inRascol consis ts of t wo software com ponen ts: • WinRascol32: T he queue a nd print m anager. It queues pr int jobs and sends t hem to the film recorder . W inRasc ol3[...]

28 Princ iple of Op eration BLLs and other im age files should be placed into dro pbox direct ories th at are ser viced autom atical ly by a PC with W inRas col. If dropbox director ies are not acc essible, BLL and oth er im age files ca n be copied to a disk and later ad ded to W inRascol on the PC with a fi lm rec order. NOTE: Im age files in dr [...]

Introduct ion 29 Printi ng fr om Windows on a PC without Fi lm Recorder Produc ing slides from W indows appl ications o n a PC wit hout f ilm rec order is a sim ple four -step process . • Select a BLL-gen erator Driv er as the ou tput dev ice for the W indows applica tion on th e PC. • Create the images with the ap plication. • Print the imag[...]

30 Princ iple of Op eration Here is a diagram showing h ow this works:                               [...]

Important C oncepts 31 Important Concepts This s ection exp lains resol ution, co lor fidel ity, and th e differenc es bet ween bitm aps and obj ects. Resolution Resolutio n can be defined in man y ways. Dots per inch (D PI) is a comm on definitio n, but an impr actical one for s lides and o verhead tr ansparenc ies beca use the D PI changes s igni[...]

32 Princ iple of Op eration W hen discuss ing film recorder resolutio n, the t erms 2000-line s lide, 400 0-line s lide a nd 8000-lin e sl ide are com monly used. The num ber of lin es ref ers to the num ber of dots across the image. Exam ples: NOTE: High end Lasergraph ics film rec orders can im age up to 1 6384x134 48 dots. T his is called 1 6000[...]

Important C oncepts 33 Bitmaps and Objects Images can contain bitmaps , objects , or b oth. Bitm aps c onsist of dots or pixels . Objec ts consis t of mathem atical desc riptions of a shap e, such as a pol ygon or line. Applic ations t hat create b itmaps ar e often cal led “paint” program s and those t hat crea te objects are often ca lled “[...]

34 Princ iple of Op eration Which Applications C reate Bit maps or Obje cts Most im ages conta in either b itmaps or objects, bu t som e images can contain b oth. Here are som e of the mo re popular applicat ions: Bitmaps • Adobe® Ph otoshop T M • Aldus® Phot oS t yler T M • Microsof t ® Paint • ZSoft Corp. Publis her's Paint brush [...]

Printer Setti ngs 35 Chapter 6: Reference This c hapter provi des deta iled inf ormation abo ut how t o use W indows BLL G enerator. Printer Settings Many W indows BLL Generator components will let you m odif y a wide var iet y of imagin g options . This section explains t hese opt ions in d etail. Lat er sectio ns will explain where thes e options[...]

36 Reference Note that the tim e it takes to im age a s lide wil l increase with the r esolutio n setting approxim ately as follo ws: Resolutio n 2k 4k 8k 16k Relati ve resolut ion 0.25 1 4 16 Relative im aging tim e 0.75 1 4 16 Approx imate im aging tim e 30s 40s 150s 600s Relative resolution is t he tota l num ber of pix els relati ve to a 4k sli[...]

Printer Setti ngs 37 Film Type Film Type spec ifies the type of film in the c amer a back c onnected to the f ilm recorder. W indows BLL Generator s upports t wo t ypes of film , LFC-bas ed and non-LFC b ased. LFC b ased film choices rel y on so-calle d LFC files that resid e in the LGD ATALFC director y. These LFC f iles cont ain transf er func t[...]

38 Reference • Polaroid 6 91 Overhe ad Trans parenc y film, wh ich produc es 3 3/4 "x 2 7/8" i nstant trans parencies • All film rec orders exc ept the Person al LFR and t he Pers onal LFR P LUS Use Kodacolor 100 with: • 35mm ca m era back • ISO da ylight bal anced pr int film • All film rec orders ex cept Digita l Photogr aph y[...]

Printer Setti ngs 39 Background Color Background Color spec ifies the back ground color of the im age. T his setting is ignore d if th e applicat ion exp licitl y sets the back ground co lor in t he im age. Use Bac kground Co lor to set t he color of unpainted r egions to white f or text app lications like W ord. O therwise, you might e nd up with [...]

40 Reference Contrast Gamma Contrast Gamma a llows for v ery fine c ontrast adj ustm ent. The rang e of vali d gam ma contras t values is 0.14 to 7.0. Howev er, values between 0 .25 an d 2.0 are us uall y more practic al. B y adjusting th e gamm a contrast val ue you c an chang e the m idtones of the im age without aff ecting the h ighlights . As t[...]

Using the Windows 95/98 Driver 41 Using the Windows 95/98 driver Printin g a docum ent or im age to a film rec order fr om an applicat ion is j ust lik e printing to a ny ord inary printer. T his proc ess will vary slight ly from applicat ion to ap plication, but gener ally the Pr int comm and in the applic ation’s File m enu will do the trick . [...]

42 Reference This is the printer s ettings dialog in W indo ws 95. • Choose the desired reso lut ion in the Resolution box . Note that not all f ilm rec orders and f ilm types suppor t all res olutions . Up to f our diff erent resoluti ons are available : • 2k – Fastest s election – up to 204 8 x 1680 p ixels • 4k – Fine reso lution –[...]

Using the Windows 95/98 Driver 43 • Orientation selec ts the im age orie ntatio n. • Output Size selects the “pap er” f ormat to use. T his shou ld matc h the paper f orm at selected in your app lication. You will general ly get best r esults with the def ault “St andard Sl ide”. You can also se lect a us er defin ed paper size NOTE: Ma[...]

44 Reference Color bal a nce and gamma corr ection • Color Balance c ontrols the brightn ess of the thr ee col or channe ls. • Gamma Correction c ontrols the gamm a correc tion. It is used t o bright en or dark en m id tones of an im age witho ut changing t he ver y dark and ver y bright pixe ls.[...]

Using the Windows 95/98 Driver 45 Miscellaneous options • Compression selec ts a com press ion type for the BLL. Med ium c ompress ion optim izes for speed, whi le high com press ion optim izes for f ile size. Use high com pression when you want to send BLLs to a ser vice prov ider usin g rem ovable media or the Int ernet. • Scale sc ales your [...]

46 Reference • Background Color se lects the c olor that is used to paint the back ground. This c olor is us ed in cases wh ere the app lication does not specif y a back ground color and when the aspect r atio of the paper s elected i n the appl ication doesn’t m atch the aspect rat io of the f ilm. The optio ns Aspec t Ratio, Ras ter Optio ns [...]

Using the Windows 95/98 Driver 47 Changing the Default Printer Settings in Windows 95/98 The doc ument def ault printe r sett ings are us ed autom aticall y when an applica tion in itiali zes the printer settings of a docum ent, usual ly when a docum ent is create d and when the select ed print er is cha nged. By setting t he docum ent defaults to [...]

48 Reference Using the Windows NT driver Printer settings in Windows NT Printin g a docum ent or im age to a film rec order fr om an applicat ion is j ust lik e printing to a ny ord inary printer. T his proc ess will var y slightly from applicati on to appl ication, but gener ally the Pr int comm and in the app lication ’s File m enu wil l do the[...]

Using the Windows NT Dr iver 49 The printer settin gs dial og look s like this : • Selecting Paper Size : Select ' Paper S ize' in th e upper win dow, the n choose a f orm in the lower window. D efault is 'LFR Standar d Slide 7.33x11i n'. • Selecting Orientation : Se lect 'Orienta tion' in th e upper win dow, then [...]

50 Reference • Selecting Background Color : S elect 'Bac kground Co lor' in the up per windo w, then choos e 'black ' or 'white'. The backgr ound color de term ines the color imaged on film for areas that the applicat ion dec ides not t o rasteri ze on. The backgr ound color is also app lied to ar eas that are not im[...]

Using the Windows NT Dr iver 51 • Selecting Gamma Correction : Select 'G amm a Correction' in the upper window, then cho ose a gamm a value bet ween 0.144 and 7. Def ault is 0. 500. • Selecting Color Balan ce : Selec t 'Red', 'Gree n' or 'Blue' i n the upper window, the n set a balance value bet ween 25 a[...]

52 Reference Changing the Default Printer Settings in Windows NT The def ault docum ent settin gs are us ed autom aticall y when an appl ication initial izes the pri nter sett ings of a docum ent, usua lly when a docum ent is created and when the se lected pri nter is c hanged. B y setting th e docum ent defaults to the s ettings you norm ally use,[...]

Managing BLL Genera t ors 53 Managing BLL-Generators Open the BLL manag ement dia log b y selecting St art->WinRascol 32->BLLConf and pressing Add/Manage BLL Generators . T he dialog looks lik e this: This is the dia log: Adding a BLL-Generator • Select A dd genera tor . The follow ing dial og i s disp lay ed: • Select th e destin ation f[...]

54 Reference • Press OK to create th e BLL dr iver. The BLL driver will now appear in the BLL-generator Administration di alog. Changing Destination Path Select Change Path in the BLL-generator adm inistrati on dia lo g. A dial og will app ear to allow you to change the destinat ion path. T he desti nation pat h points t o the dir ector y in whic[...]

Managing BLL Genera t ors 55 Modifying Dri ver Opti ons Open the G lobal dr iver s ettings d ialog b y selec ting St art->WinRascol32->BLLConf and pres sing Configure Drivers . T he dialog look s like this : • Disk space usag e sets th e am ount of free dis k s pace the driv er leaves m inim ally before reporting D isk Full . • Enable Pow[...]

When to us e the U ninstaller 57 Chapter 7: Uninstalling When to use the Uninstaller The uninsta ller is us ed to r emove a ll com ponents of the W indows BLL Gen erator fr om y our com puter. You will want to do this when • You do not intend to use W indows BLL G enera tor on your com puter an y longer. • The W indows BLL G enerat or insta lla[...]

58 Uninsta lling W inRascol How to use the Uninstaller You can u ninstall th e W indows BLL G enerator p ack age by select ing Uninstall in the WinRascol32 program group. Unins tall will do the fol lowing: • Remove al l W indows BLL G enerator pr inter dri vers • Remove al l W indows BLL G enerator s ystem drivers (N T only) • Remove al l W i[...]

Tips and Tricks 59 Chapter 8: Tips and Tricks[...]

60 Tips and Tricks This s ection gives tips and trick s on particu lar image t ypes and applic ations. Specific Applications Adobe Type Manager (ATM) W indows BLL Gen erator is full y com patible with Adobe T ype Manager ( AT M ) fonts, vers ion 1.15 or newer. T hese fonts pr oduce sm ooth text at any s ize and m atch text l ayout in your output wi[...]

Specific App lic at io ns 61 CorelDRAW 8 CorelDRAW 8 will generate erroneous o utput when you choos e a va lue higher than 25 6 for the number of f ountain steps i n the m iscellaneous printer options. CorelDR A W 8 will e ven crash while pri nting gradient f ills if th e num ber is ver y high, lik e 2000. Freelance Graphics for Windows Ver 1.0 If [...]

62 Tips and Tricks where your _Windows B LL Generat or_pri nter_name is the name of the Windows BLL Gener a tor printer as sho wn in the Ins talled Pri nter Lis t of the Control Panel . For ex ample, if you have an LFR, the lines you should add are: [LFR] NoPatternOnlySolidFill=0 ROPtype=0 StretchImage=0 If you hav e a Person al LFR, the lines you [...]

Specific at ions 63 Appendix A: Specifications Specific ations are subject to change without notice. Supported PCs Any IBM PC com patible with a 486 pr ocessor or better a nd at least 16 MB of m emor y. Note that this represents the abs olute m inimum . You will need m or e mem ory if you intend to use W indows NT or have gra phics inte nsive im ag[...]

64 Specif ications Supported Operating Environment W indows 95, W indows 98, W indows NT 4.0 and W indows NT 5.0 Image Enhancements Color balanc e Gamma co ntra st Fonts True Type ATM (Adobe T ype Manager) ver 1.5 or lat er Software Sel ect able Resolution (Film Recorder ) 4000 lines (4 096 x 273 0 pixels) 2000 lines (2048 x 1366 pixels ) On LFR Ma[...]

Output Prob le ms 65[...]

Glossary 6 7 Glossary antialiasing Assigning pixels at the edg es of objec ts a gradua ted gra y scale of values. T his dram atically red uces the app earance of jaggies . Binary Lasergraphics L anguage (BLL) A pro prietary pr int job f orm at. bitmap A t ype of graphic com posed of a rec tangular group of colored dots. B itmaps have jagged edges w[...]

68 Gloss ary Lasergraphics Language A po werful gra phics language t hat is com mon in the m ainf rame and minic omputer envir onm ents. Lasergraphics Film Calibration file A file t hat prov ides ca libration data of a film type for a s pecif ic LFR model. T herefor e, the LFC file of 35mm Vericolor for LFR Mark III is d iffer ent from the one f or[...]

Glossary 6 9 RISCRascol A Rascol model th at offer s dramatic speed incr ease f or the Laser graphics film recorders . For com plex im ages, the RISCRas col is 1 5 times faster than t he Rasc ol II/IV. server PC A PC connec ted to a f ilm r ecorder . T he PC can r un W inRascol Net work Vers ion to sh are the film recorder with other ne twork users[...]

Index 71 Index 24-bit c olor, 14 35mm prints, 13 35mm slides, 13 Adobe Type Manager , 33 , 60 Applicat ion Pri nting fr om, 22 applicat ions draw , 33 illustr ation, 33 paint, 33 Arts & Letters, 3 4, 60 ATM , 33, 60 auto deletion, 28 Back ground Color , 39, 50 Bitmap, 33 BLL-gener ator Add, 53 Ad di ng, 19 Change path, 54 Delete, 54 Manage, 53 [...]

72 Index LFC files , 38 Polachrom e, 37 Polaroid 3 39, 37 Polaroid 6 69, 37 Polaroid 6 91, 37 Film Ty pes , 64 font ATM , 33, 60 Free lance, 34 , 61 Freelanc e Graphics for W indows, 61 Gamma, 51 Contrast, 44 Guided to ur, 21 Hardware Required, 10 Harvard G raphics , 34 Lasergrap hics Film Cali bratio n fil es, 37 , 38 LFC fi les, 37 , 38 LFR, 13 M[...]